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MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

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Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#281

Post by bluGill »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #267
codepoet80 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in a 7 person company. Got voted down in favor of Teams because the "learning curve" of anything else wasn't worth their time. This despite the confusing and ridiculous UX of Teams.

> because the "learning curve" of anything else wasn't worth their time As someone on the other side of the divide who hates these products, this is accurate. A non-standard product is a non-starter in most fields unless it has a killer advantage.

Teams is a non-standard product to me who has used various chat programs over the years. It does some things okay, but I still want to go back to lync (skype for business). The features I use are worse than competition, and there are features I don't use that are annoying.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#282

Post by DrThunder »

dustedcodes wrote: post #6

I have no skin in the game, but even I am starting to think the obvious thing here: Apple and Google own the entire mobile OS market. They could literally destroy Microsoft if they started to hugely degrade the experience of Microsoft products on iOS and Android with dark patterns a la Microsoft. But they don't. So far they were competing by making their own products better. Microsoft needs to think hard how hostile…

How could they destroy MS? The majority of MS's market is enterprise stuff.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#283

Post by mattferderer »

If Microsoft focused more on improving their browser & marketing it to every day people (outside of cramming ads in their OS) they might not need such dark patterns.

Honestly, I like Edge more than Firefox & Chrome. The only thing I find missing is better default privacy features that Brave offers. I imagine you can get them with an extension. The Read Aloud & reader modes of Edge are fantastic. A majority of the rest is at par with Firefox & Chrome.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#284

Post by eep_social »

cmsonger wrote: post #142

They are going to make me have a second computer. One for gaming. One more browsing. I'll just never open anything but Steam on my windows computer. Given how small and cheap Linux boxes can be, I guess I'll get on this pronto.

Just buy a Steam Deck and run Steam on that?

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#285

Post by vladvasiliu »

nottorp wrote: post #266
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Were they ever different tho? According to many people on HN, they changed completely, and they have nothing to do with the old epoch of Ballmer and Gates. Yet, I was never convinced by the "but they embrace open source now" argument: * their financing of SCO in the "Linux is illegal" ridiculous attempt to discredit their competition that took over a decade * the contempt for their users in various ways, from gray…

> According to many people on HN, they changed completely, and they have nothing to do with the old epoch of Ballmer and Gates. Yeah right. Why is there spam on my windows 10 start menu? > Instead, in 2023 you have to still install Windows first to avoid problems. You do? Got a new Linux desktop. I'll eventually put Windows on it. I was planning on installing it on a separate SSD just in case. Will that destroy my Li…

In my experience the worst it does is setting itself to boot automatically. It won't mess with secureboot keys or anything. In my case, I removed the pc's default ones and installed my own and signed ms's key with mine. It works fine.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#286

Post by makiftasova »

kivihiinlane wrote: post #186
malermeister wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Firefox addon that spoofs the user agent for Google-owned sites so it delivers the Chrome version of things. Works without any issues and it's a much nicer product experience.

What is the name of this addon?

afaik, pretty much any user-agent changer works. At least that's what one of my colleagues uses to join MS Teams meetings on Firefox. Simply switch your user-agent to Chrome, and it should do the trick.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#287

Post by toyg »

AraceliHarker wrote: post #86
toyg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is actually the one reacting here. They were effectively forced to let the web be an open field by antitrust cases; Apple and Google took advantage of that to build two walled gardens, which ended up dwarfing MS's own empire. It was inevitable that, sooner or later, MS would have gone "If this behaviour is now allowed, why should we not do it too?" This is just the result of normalizing monopolistic practic…

Simply put, people don't love Edge as much as they love Chrome. The browser bundled with Windows 11 is naturally Edge, but users who use Chrome install Chrome of their own volition, so forcing them to open links in Edge is extremely annoying.

As annoying as for Edge-loving people who then buy a mobile phone and are then forced to "open their links" in Safari or Chrome.

But to be honest, it's mostly the other way around: people live on phones, and when they have to interact with desktops, they pick the browser that integrates with their phones in the most seamless way. Which means, inevitably, the browser picked by their mobile-OS vendor, since there is little or no choice in that world.

The solution is not to turn into a little enforcer/fanboi for this or that corporation, but to crack open the mobile world (as well as Windows or any future platform) with the force of the State.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#288

Post by JumpCrisscross »

bluGill wrote: post #281
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because the "learning curve" of anything else wasn't worth their time As someone on the other side of the divide who hates these products, this is accurate. A non-standard product is a non-starter in most fields unless it has a killer advantage.

Teams is a non-standard product to me who has used various chat programs over the years. It does some things okay, but I still want to go back to lync (skype for business). The features I use are worse than competition, and there are features I don't use that are annoying.

> features I use are worse than competition, and there are features I don't use that are annoying

I hate Teams. I hate Meet. But they work with basically zero training. You have to pick your battles, and successful businesses choose theirs in core competencies.

Re: MSFT is forcing Outlook and Teams to open links in Edge and IT admins are angry

#290

Post by mats852 »

nickjj wrote: post #171

Interesting timing. 2 days ago a place I'm at switched us from Google mail + calendar + meet to Microsoft outlook + calendar + teams. I almost can't believe at how good Google's suite of tools are compared to Microsoft. I never used any of MS' office tools until a few days ago. Outlook's web app doesn't even let you click into an email to mark it as read. You have to explicitly click the mark as read button. It also…

I think the worst part is their authentication, for some reason I have a personal account that was invited as a guest in an organization to use Teams. I can only access the Teams workspace if I click through a link in my emails and I have to login twice. It only works on the web version, I can't login the app at all.

But once you're in Teams, everything is so much worse, it's like using a hacked version of MS Word to chat. But where Slack actually shines is around the workflows, automation and bots, I don't think Teams has much of that.

@geerlingguy had a way worse experience recently.

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